House OKs amended charter school plan

By Lindsay Kastner |
May 16, 2013
| Updated: May 16, 2013 10:38pm

AUSTIN — The Texas House approved on Thursday an amended version of a bill to introduce sweeping changes to the state's charter school system.

Senate Bill 2 passed on a 105-34 vote on second reading. It now faces a third reading before it can be reconciled with a similar version the Senate passed last month.

"I think the bill supports quality charters, helping them to expand and grow but at the same time helping to shut down the poor performers," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen.

Its author, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, has called SB2 the most comprehensive charter school legislation since the state introduced the publicly funded and privately run schools in the 1990s. Previous efforts to change the system made it through the Senate but failed to gain traction in the House.

The bill would update rules on the renewal, expansion and revocation of charters, raising the current cap of 215 charters that can be authorized at any one time by allowing an additional 10 per year up to a total of 275 by 2019. Charter holders may operate multiple schools under a single charter.

It would also tighten nepotism rules - an amendment exempts current employees - and give operators the right of first refusal on the lease or purchase of unused facilities in traditional public school districts.

Patrick initially sought to provide charters with state funding for facilities, create a separate board to authorize new charters and to eliminate the state cap altogether.

He and other supporters have argued that Texas needs more charters to provide choices to families, including the more than 100,000 Texas school children on charter school waiting lists.

Critics of the bill questioned whether the state could maintain proper oversight of rapid charter school expansion. Later versions of the bill, including the one the House passed Thursday, took a more gradual approach and left authorization decisions in the hands of the State Board of Education.

On Thursday, Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, tried to amend the bill to delay raising the cap for one year while quality controls are put in place.

"I'm not opposed to charter schools," he said. "The only point I'm making is that before we open the door for more charter schools, let's place quality into the system."

It failed 52 to 86.

The House adopted other amendments, including one requiring teachers at charter schools to hold bachelor's degrees and another requiring the majority of a charter's board members to be "qualified voters."

Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, introduced the latter amendment, saying it was not aimed at any particular charter operator. Critics of the Harmony Public Schools charter network have complained to lawmakers in the past about the presence of Turkish citizens among Harmony leadership.

During the debate, Rep. Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas, called three points of order - technicalities that can be used to stall or derail a bill - but all three were overruled.